Having a website is only effective if the content of the site is easily readable for visitors. Otherwise, even great content will not be able to do its job. While this may sound very basic, readability is a major issue that a high percentage of websites struggle with. Reading from a screen can be difficult, so readability should be a primary concern during design.

In this article we’ll look at six keys to designing for readability. Keep these points in mind and your content will be much more effective.

Spacing and Alignment

If you want the text of your site to have an impact and to be noticed, make good use of spacing. Rather than using a lot of text in small areas, space it out and keep it uncluttered. The space around text will have a huge impact on the level of readability.

Whitespace or negative space is a big key. It may seem like wasted space, but it’s actually allowing everything to have a greater impact. Less is more.

Text Size

Because each visitor will have their own unique preferences, it is important to allow text to be re-sized by the user. By using CSS to set text sizes with ems or percentages, you will allow visitors to increase or decrease the size of the text in their browser.

In addition to giving flexibility, you can also use font sizes to make certain text stand out. Increasing the size of text will generally make it more noticeable, but keep in mind that the more you use large text the less impact it will have.

Font Choices

When working to make a site readable, it is best to stick to web-safe fonts like Arial and Georgia. Other fonts may look nice, but you will not have control over which visitors are able to view it in your favorite font. Newer technologies like sIFR do make it possible to use a much wider variety of fonts.

One of the main causes of poor readability is choosing the wrong font or using too many different fonts. Generally you should stick with no more than 2-3 fonts on any website, otherwise it can impair readability.

Length of Lines of Text

Even though a high percentage of internet users are using widescreen displays with high resolution, lines of text that are too wide can have negative impacts on readability.

Keep in mind when designing that very wide or long lines of text can be difficult to read, as can very short or narrow lines of text. Most content areas are not wider than 600-700 pixels, because anything can larger can get rather difficult to read.

Font Weight

Use bold text when you want to make something stand out, but be sure to use it sparingly as it will stand out more when compared to normal text.

Distractions

Websites that feature excellent readability allow the text to be the focal point of the design. Having too many other bells and whistles for the sake of looking impressive can actually do more harm than good as it will take away from the emphasis on the text.

Steven Snell is a web designer and blogger from New Jersey. He maintains a design blog called DesignM.ag. If you’d like to see more about text and fonts you can find collections at his blog of free calligraphy style fonts and bold fonts.